We live in a rapidly changing world with growing inequality and environmental destruction. Policy in all domains increasingly reflect the neoliberal agenda – one where profit and growth are viewed as ends in of themselves. People – their wellbeing, their relationship with nature and their humanity – are increasingly disregarded in decision making by elites. The case of food and agriculture is a case in point where policies are controlled largely by multinational corporations and financiers in the private sector along with their counterparts in science, government and mainstream NGOs. Yet, it is not all doom and gloom. Social movements around the world are mobilising to contest the injustices of the current dominant order(s) and to build alternatives. The global food sovereignty movement reflects a call to put people and planet first and, through democratic reform, for food producers and those most affected by the injustices of the food system, to gain control over food policy and practice. In different parts of the world, citizens are organizing grassroots processes to create people’s food policy platforms to articulate the vision and policy demands from a food sovereignty perspective (e.g. in Canada, India, Australia). This talk will focus on England’s A People’s Food Policy process, which involved 18 months of dialogues, workshops and debates amongst grassroots organisations, NGOs, trade unions, community projects, small businesses and individuals. This people’s policy process is embedded within a longer, ongoing, movement for food sovereignty in the UK. The resulting document was launched in June 2017, and is a manifesto demanding that governments, NGOs and people working on food policy put the wellbeing of people and environment first, develop integrated food policy, and create participatory decision-making approaches that empower those most affected by these policies. The document is now endorsed by over 100 organisations in the UK, creating an important platform to crystallise the argument for food sovereignty and to bring allies together around a common purpose. This session will highlight some key points from a reflective and participatory evaluation of the PFP process to discuss the role of these grassroots policy-oriented processes in the struggle for Agroecology and food sovereignty. Visit www.peoplesfoodpolicy.org to download the full report.

1. A PEOPLE'S
FOOD POLICY
Transforming our food system
Presented at AESOP Sustainable Food Conference in Coventry. November 14, 2017.
Dee Bu&erly
Land Workers Alliance
Colin Anderson
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University,
www.peoplesknowledge.org

2. The Document
• A grassroots process created as a tool and set of policy
ideas for the UK food sovereignty movement
• ArLculates the meaning and pracLce of food sovereignty in
a UK context.
• Provides concrete recommendaLons for policy based on
the principles of food sovereignty, agroecology and the
right to food.
• Creates a framework and reference points for acLon

3. The Process

4. Food For People
Value Food Producers
DemocraLc Control
Localise Food Systems
Build Knowledge and Skills
Work with Nature
Based on Six Principles of Food Sovereignty

6. People’s Processes for
Ar@cula@ng, Co-Crea@ng and
Amplifying Theories and PlaCorms
for Change

8. hQp://www.peoplesknowledge.org/projects/peoples-
food-policy-processes/
A Ba&le of Ideas and of Posi@on

9. Food
policy
Regime
(neoliberal,
etc.)
Reformist
Radical

10. Reflec@ng

11. Par@cipa@on – Deepening Democracy

12. Poli@cal Opportuni@es

13. Naviga@ng Civil Society Networks

14. Social Movement Building

15. Linkages between process, across
scales

16. Dee BuQerly – dee@landworkersalliance.org.uk
Colin Anderson - colin.anderson@coventry.ac.uk
www.peoplesfoodpolicy.org
PresentaLon available at: www.peoplesknowledge.org